History

Incorporation

Upper Uwchlan Township was incorporated as a municipality in 1858. For more than 125 years, it had been the upper part of Greater Uwchlan Township. All of Upper Uwchlan's earliest history is found within the history of Uwchlan Township. Only its unwieldy size of 22.52 square miles was given as a reason for dividing the township into two entities.

Location

Upper Uwchlan lies on a plain between the North Valley Hills to the south and the Nantmeal Hills to the north. The natural topography of Upper Uwchlan is part of the Piedmont region of Pennsylvania, falling just south of the Welsh Mountain anticline, which ends at Black Horse Hill.

Drainage

More than two-thirds of the township is drained by Marsh Creek and its tributary, Black Horse Run, which flow into the Brandywine Creek at Dorlan's Mill. The other one-third, on the eastern side of Route 100, is drained by the headwaters of Pickering Creek, which flow into the Schuylkilll River below Phoenixville.

Traffic

Upper Uwchlan Township's main traffic arteries are Route 100 north / south and the Little Conestoga Road bearing northwest at the Eagle Hotel (Eagle Tavern). Called the oldest road in Pennsylvania between the Delaware and the Susquehanna Rivers, Little Conestoga Road was known as the Allegheny Path on very early maps of the region. Route 100 did not bisect the northern part of the township until 1839, when it was rerouted from Pughtown in a sweeping western bend to cross the main Conestoga Turnpike (Route 401) at present Ludwig's Corner. This was a purely political move to bring more business traffic into the village of Eagle.

For Additional Information

You can read more about our history in "A Place Betwixt and Between," a history of Upper Uwchlan Township written by Estelle Cremers and Pam Shenk and published in 1999. The soft-cover book is available for purchase at the township office for $15.